DITA: Indicating the language of content for DITA processing

This article describes how to identify the locale (language and region) of DITA content, so that the DITA Open Toolkit can process it correctly. The DITA Open Toolkit (DITA OT), a component which is used for generating output from DITA documents in XMetaL Author Enterprise Edition, applies features such as font selection and generated text differently depending on the document language.

Setting xml:lang in your Content
It is strongly recommended that you set the xml:lang attribute at the root of the map file and the root of all topic files. Refer to the list of xml:lang attributes for which the DITA OT is pre-configured. If an element in a topic should be processed as a different language than the rest of the topic, set the xml:lang attribute on that element as well.

Parameters when Generating Output from XMetaL
For Microsoft HTML Help (CHM) or JavaHelp output, add the following parameter to the Advanced tab of the Edit Deliverable Type dialog:
ANT_PARAM_args.dita.locale = <locale code>
For example, to sort in Spanish, use ANT_PARAM_args.dita.locale = es-es

For HTML, WebHelp, and "XMetaL Enhanced PDF" output, you do not need to add any parameters. Locale information will be picked up from your content.

Parameters when Generating Output Using a Standalone DITA OT
For generating Microsoft HTML Help (CHM) or JavaHelp output, set the following parameter:
args.dita.locale = <locale code>
For example, to sort in Spanish, this is args.dita.locale = es-es

In versions of the DITA Open Toolkit prior to 1.5, you must set the document.locale parameter when generating PDF output.

For HTML output, you do not have to set any parameters. Locale information will be picked up from your content.